College and Research Libraries 356 I College & Research Libraries • September 1970 pre-1964 imprints in order to avoid dupli- cation of Cho_ice. About 27 percent of the titles in B]CL were published after 1964; most of this group are doubtless also listed in Choice, or the Choice Opening Day Col- lection. Since B]CL " ... does not attempt in any way to cover the vast areas of termi- nal and vocational courses offered in junior and community colleges," we may then ask -why was this bibliography prepared? Why couldn't BCL and Choice serve as selec- tion guides for the liberal arts "core," and B]CL concentrate on just those terminal and vocational areas to which the junior and community colleges pay particular at- tention? Margaret Egan and Jesse Shera in their article, "Toward a Foundation of a Theory of Bibliography" (Library Quarter- ly 22:125-137, 1952) , cited two concepts of bibliography: the microscopic, in which each bibliography exists entire unto itself and is its own justification, and the macro- scopic, in which each bibliography is a func- tioning part of a whole system. B]CL is yet another bibliography conceived in micro- cosm which cites excellent titles, most of which however have been recorded in many other lists. What we need is a co- ordinated series of bibliographies represent- ing core strata and collection building phases (a la Elementary School Library Collection). These "core development bib- liographies" would change but slowly, and but little. Around them then would be ranged various secondary and peripheral bibliographies representing specialized areas of interest, dealing with the up-to- date, and the ephemeral, which could be used to develop the unique character of any collection. There are other problems too. For ex- ample, the New York Times Index , and New Serial Titles appear to have been omitted, and though the New Catholic En- cyclopedia, and the Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam are listed, none of the excellent Jewish encyclopedias could be found , nor ·any of a number of other similar works. These apparent omissions may be the re- sult of poor indexing. The index. in two parts: author, and subject, generally omits titles, lists a work only once, usually under the "official" entry, and omits cross-refer- ences. This may save space but not users' time or tempers (as in a last-ditch effort, Ayer's directory is found under N. W. Ayer . . .-and only there). Strict adherence to LC practice wavers, however, since the Encyclopedia of Philosophy is indexed only under Edwards, and the McGraw-Hill Dic- tionary of Modern Economics under Green- wald. Titles should be indexed, and there should be cross-references. Lastly, despite the claim that the " . . . system for arranging titles within this list was developed pragmatically to provide an arrangement more suited to book selection purposes than the usual li- brary classification schemes . . . " one wonders why? If there is a special benefit, it is not evident to this reviewer, though it is quite evident that the notation used is easily confused with that used by LC in its classification, and actually acts as an impediment to comparison with other lists arranged by more conventional schema. More highly selective than BCL, and more up-to-date in one volume, much ex- panded over its predecessor, Books for Junior Colleges, B]CL will be useful to some small junior and community colleges for which it is intended, and to some of the small four-year colleges whose collec- tions have not yet really begun to grow. It may be useful also to some larger high school libraries and possibly to some pub- lic libraries. One awaits the day, however, when standard titles will be listed only o:rice or twice in these kinds of lists, and our at- tention is focused on keeping the rest of it all up -to-date.-Edmund R. Arnold, Syra- cuse University. Tomorrow's Library: Direct Access and Delivery. By Robert Thayer Jordan. New York: Bowker, 1970. 212p. $10.00. While home delivery of books is not a new idea in librarianship, there is relative- ly little literature available. Robert Jordan has provided a service in bringing together a historical accounting of various projects dealing with direct delivery of books. He deals with past and present experiments, with particular emphasis upon mail deliv- ery, and suggests how to implement a re- gional direct access and delivery service. However, he concludes that " ... perhaps librarians are not the ones who should de- velop and promote a new national system of library home delivery" since he fears that libraries are too stable and conserva- tive institutions to undergo radical change. He says that " ... public library philosophy today is still affected by the paternalistic, Lady Bountiful attitude" and that it is " . . . unfortunately true that people who work for libraries (and railroads) are often more rude and officious than those who work for airlines and department stores." Books-by-mail does have appealing points and there have been some successful experiments despite a generally disparaging attitude among most librarians. Mr. Jordan does not give enough information and eval- uation to a successful program such as the one in North Central Regional Library in Washington, D.C. , and the more modest project in the San Antonio Public Library. A considerable amount of text consists of extensive quotations from correspondence with the author. Author and editor are guilty of poor editing. To quote extensively from correspondence and give a false name in the text and index; to repeat whole paragraphs twice in several instances; to fail to give credit to correspondence in the text or in the index: these failings open questions concerning the validity of the con- tents. The book is short, with forty-seven pages devoted to four appendices. "Response to Direct Access and Delivery" (Appendix A) contains testimonials from twelve librarians. Appendix B contains three statements in relation to the "Library Bill of Rights" which deal with access to material. A pilot project for a local and regional demonstra- tion of books-by-mail is presented in Ap- pendix C and readers can see a reprint ar- ticle about the Jordan Plastic Book Box in Appendix D. More serious than the editing problem are substantive matters relating to book-by- mail projects. Preferential postage rates are a key factor. His statement that "it does not seem likely that Congress would abolish this modest 'hidden subsidy' to libraries any more than it would abolish the low second-class rates" rings hollow consider- ing pending postal reform legislation. His Recent Publications I 357 rating on the efficiency of parcel post de- livery is overly generous, at least for cer- tain parts of the country. Many of his fig- ures are dated by five years or more. He claims that "the climate has never been better for innovations" and that the con- cept of "the free library is as outmoded as the concept that information is scarce." And yet he indicates that a charge per delivery package of over twenty-five cents would "almost certainly cripple the possibility that home delivery would ever serve more than a handful of people." It is in the author's arguments to con- vince the reader of the value of the direct access idea that he opens himself to ques- tionable facts and logic. In an uncited quo- tation, the statement is made that "increas- ing numbers of walk-in libraries are ex- periencing losses of 5- 10 percent annual- ly." This should be qualified. He claims New York Public Library is the only li- brary intending to develop research library status (what about Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, to name a few?) and that home delivery will free the branch li- brary from a certain amount of questions and routine circulation so that "library sys- tems might begin to staff branch libraries with competent · professionals all of the time." Mr. Jordan's demonstration projects are not inexpensive-a million dollars for one metropolitan area or state or ten million dollars for a first demonstration project con- fined to one large state or region. A second demonstration project involving one-quarter of the U.S. citizens would cost $100 mil- lion. Despite numerous criticisms that can be leveled at this work, the book provides a focal point for the issue of direct home de- livery of library materials.-John F. Ander- son, San Francisco Public Library. Libraries and Cultural Change. By Ron- ald C. Benge. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books (Shoestring Press), 1970. 278p. $9.00. "There is," wrote Ruth Benedict in Pat- terns of Culture, "one difficult exercise to which we may accustom ourselves as we